Sweet William and Pretty Polly- Eubank (VA) 1914 Davis K
[From Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia; 1929. His notes follow. Is stanza six edited to replace the "naked woman to see"?
R. Matteson 2014]
LADY ISABEL AND THE ELF-KNIGHT
(CHILD, NO.4)
THIS ballad is one of the few most frequently found in Virginia, where variously known as "Pretty Polly," "The Seven King's Daughters," "King's Daughter," "The Pretty Gold Leaf," "The Salt Water Sea," "Miss Mary's Parrot," and under several other titles. Its polyonymity is almost equal to its ubiquity - twenty-eight variants under sixteen different titles. In Virginia it does not, however, when compared with" Barbara Allen," "The House Carpenter" and several others quite live up to its reputation of having obtained the widest circulation of all ballads. Child's remarkable introduction to this ballad discusses at some length its extraordinary currency in the southern as well as the northern nations of Europe. Space is also given to a consideration of the hypothesis that the ballad is a wild shoot from the story of Judith and Holofernes, with Holofernes the original of the Elf-Knight. Child concludes; "It is a supposition attended with less difficulty that an independent European tradition existed of a half-human, half-demonic being, who possessed an irresistible power of decoying away young maids, and was wont to kill them after he got them into his hands, but who at last found one who was more than his match, and lost his own life through her craft and courage. A modification of this story is afforded by the large class of Bluebeard tales."
All the Virginia texts correspond much more closely with the Child series C-G (and Sargent and Kittredge H) than to A and B. Warning might perhaps be given of the confusion of Pollies in most of the Virginia texts. The girl and the parrot have the same name and are not always immediately distinguishable.
For American findings of this ballad see Barry, No. 4; Belden, No. 1 (fragment); Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos. 2-4, 6-12; Campbell and Sharp, No. 2 (Massachusetts, North Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia); Child, III, 496 (Virginia, from The Folk-Lore Journal, VII, p. 28); Cox, No. I and p. 521 (fragment and melody); Hudson, No. I (Mississippi); Jones, p. 301 (fragment); Journal, XVIII, 132 (Barry, Massachusetts, text and melody); XIX, 232 (Belden, Missouri); XXII, 65 (Beatty, Wisconsin), 76 (Barry, New Jersey, melody only), 374 (Barry, Massachusetts, text and melody, Missouri), 344 (Barry, Massachusetts); XXVII, 90 (Gardner, Michigan); XXVIII, 148 (Perrow, North Carolina); XXXV, 338 (Tolman and Eddy, Ohio); Mackenzie, Ballads, No. I, and p. 391 (melody); Sandburg, P: 60 (R. W. Gordon Collection); Scarborough, p. 43 (Texas, text and melody); Shearin, p. 3; Shearin and Combs, p. 7; Reed Smith, No. I; Reed Smith, Ballads, No. I; Wyman and Brockway, p. 82. For additional references, see Cox, p. 3; Journal, XXIX.
K. "Sweet William and Pretty Polly." Reported by Miss Mary Washington Ball. Collected by Miss Arline Eubank, of Richmond, Va. Sung by her grandmother. Henrico County. May 20, 1914.
1 "Oh, bring all of thy father's gold," he said,
"And some o' thy mother's fee,
And two of the best horses out of the stable
Where there stands thirty and three."
2 She brought all of her father's gold
And some of her mother's fee
And two of the best horses out o' the stable
Where there stood thirty and three.
3 He mounted her on a milk-white steed
And himself on a dapple grey;
And they rode and rode to the salt sea side
Three hours before it was day.
4 "Mount off, mount off thy milk-white steed
And deliver it unto me;
For six pretty maids have I drowned here,
And the seventh thou shalt be.
5 "Strip off, strip off thy silken gown
And deliver it unto me;
For I think it is too rich and too gay
To rot all in the salt sea."
6 "Then if I must strip off my silken gown,
Oh, turn thy back to me;
For I think it's not fitting that thou shouldst see
A modest maiden like me."
7 He turned his back toward her then
And gazed at the leaves on the tree.
And she caught him in her arms so strong
And flung him into the sea.
8 He dived and he swum, and he dived and he swum
Till he came to the sea side,
Saying, "Take my hand, my pretty Polly,
And I'll make thee my bride."
9 "Lie there, lie there, thou false-hearted wretch,
Thou'dst better lie there than me.
Oh, six pretty maidens hast thou drowned here,
But the seventh hast drowned thee."
10 She mounted herself on the milk-white steed,
Likewise led the dapple grey,
And she was back at her own father's house
An hour before it was day.